Normal maps not working in blender internal in 2.78 update
Ok so I was able to 'fix' this problem. For some reason now in 2.78 your mesh requires a uvmap regardless of whether or not it is using said uvmap (global... genereated .etc.) for normals to work as intended. diffuse spec all work fine without it. So to fix this problem with the normal map not working, all that had to be done was just create a uvmap. Weird but... there you have it.